Hi,

Just wanted to post my car stereo upgrade photos. Luckly I have the non-MOST system so adding a new head unit was basically plug and play. I didn't have to swap out the BOSE amp. By getting the Metra 70-1784 harness I just connected the wires from the Metra harness to the harness of the new headunit. Then plug directly into the radio harness on the car. On my Metra harness the yellow and red wires were backwards so I had to swap them (not sure if mine was made wrong). The red is the accessory and yellow is continuous power. When this is backwards everytime I turned the car off the stereo did not get continuous power and had to reset (lost the preset settings everytime I take the key out). When I swapped the red and yellow wires on the Metra harness now I don't loose the preset settings everytime I turn the car off.

So here is the stock CDR-220:

 

Here is the Metra harness connected to the new Kenwood KDC-x792 headunit. This unit had excellent sound but the display was horrible. The sun would block it out completely. The right rotory know if you turn it moves to the next song/playlist and then you push in to select the song/playlist. But you can also push this know right/left/up and down. Left and right to move to the next or previous song and up and down to go to the next/previous playlist (with the ipod). The problem is while you're driving if you want to select a song by pushing the **** in, it usually goes right or left/up or down depending on if you hit a bump on the road so it's difficult to use the **** correctly while driving. It became so annoying that I couldn't easily select the songs I want that I returned this Kenwood headunit. Also it did not match the orange/yellow of the Porsche interior.

Metra harness:


Metra harness plugs into the factory stereo cable:


Remote Lead:



Final Install:


This is how it looks in the sunlight:


At night:

 

So I uninstalled the Kenwood unit (as simple as unplugging it) and got an Alpine CDA-9887 (their top of the line single DIN unit). This matched the color better in the Porsche but still not great. Unfortunately the sound quality is not as good as the Kenwood running through the BOSE amp. Also the install was not as simple. Each accessory component had to have it's own power (so the Bluetooth module, Sirius, etc... I had to connect a separate power and ground wire for each component). I piggy-backed it to the power and ground on the main radio harness. This created some alternator noise that whines with the revs of the engine. Also Alpine's bluetooth unit is completely worthless. No one could hear me through Alpine's microphone. The Kenwood design is much better. Each component gets connected to the next component in series and did not require a separate power connection for each component. And the sound quality of the Kenwood bluetooth is excellent - I think this is because Kenwood uses the Parrot bluetooth system.

So I sent this Alpine unit back too! Each time I pay a 15%-20% restocking fee unfortunately.

Here's the install:

 

Next I bought the Kenwood DNX-5120 double DIN with NAV and rear reverse camera. I have to say I'm very happy with this setup! Finally. This unit you can adjust the color of the lights to match the car (via RGB) so you can completely custom match the color to the car. The Alpine CDA9887 had orange but it was bright orange and did not match the Porsche. Also the sound quality on the Kenwoods is superior to Alpine (via the BOSE amp). The install on this is definitely not for the weak (compared to the single DIN units). I had to cut and Drummel the dash to make the double DIN headunit fit. I would say it took me about 12 hours to do.

The reverse camera took about 12 hours too! I had to gut out the rear deck and find a grommet to pass the reverse camera wire through (this is the time consuming part). Mounting the camera is as easy and unscrewing the top license plate screws and screwing in the camera over the license plate. I had to drill a hole through the bumper to pass the camera wire through to the engine bay.

Also I had to move the AC control unit down by the shifter. In the process of moving this the LCD somehow got damaged. It started with 2 bad pixels (I don't think it's a pixel type screen). Then it kept growing in size. I'm wondering it's because of the cold weather here (it's been -10F on and off for about a week). Has anyone seen this? I didn't drop or hit the AC module at all. You can see the defect even when the car is off and the interior lights are not on.

Removed the AC control unit and the radio:



Removed the dash so I could modify it outside the car:



AC unit moved down (note no damage to the right screen here):



Here's the headunit cage screwed into the dash piece:



GPS antenna and the FM traffic antenna mounted under the windshield hidden under the security LED:



Underneath the driver seat I tapped into the Black/blue strip wire for the reverse wire of the reverse camera:



Rear deck apart. I cut through the grommet on the passenger side corner:



Reverse camera:



Here's the deck installed. I spent hours trying to modify the Kenwood faceplate to fit but it was time wasted! Don't do this on your install. I got this faceplate on ebay (Too bad they don't have a matte black one):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&it em=220297708386

 

Final Look:



Final look in the dark. There are only 2 areas where the AC screen is bad. This is one of the earlier pictures:



Later picture shows the bigger defect in the AC screen:



Garmin Nav screen:



Traffic view. I love this feature. Shows where all the slow areas in town:



Reverse camera view:



I have to thank Kurt for all his help! I used his install thread as a guide:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...diy-stuff.html

Paul

 

This looks very clean. Good job.

 

Thanks!

 

Great job, looks much better now.

 

where did you get that trim that goes around the climate control? I moved mine down as well to accomodate the double din.

 

The AC trim piece is from the Porsche dealer. I got mine from Suncoast Motors $3.99 part number 996-552-339-00-01C.

Paul

 

Nice I totally missed this thread at first.

 

GREAT write up! This will be a great help for any DIY.

 

Great write up. Thanks and I look forward to doing this install soon and Kenwood is my choice of head unit as well.

 

In retrospect I would have done the Kenwood Nav unit right away. Also I would have spent the extra $75 to get the wireless rearview camera by Boyo (to avoid tear up in the rear insides to run a wire to the engine bay).

 

Thanks guys.